If the four Lower Snake River (LSR) dams are breached...
Q.
What is the timeline for breaching?
A.
To minimize any deleterious effects of resuspended sediment, breaching should occur when few migrating salmon are present (12/15 - 3/15).
Breaching Timeline begins in 2018:
- September 1 - Prepare Supplemental EIS materials and Record of Decision
- October 15 - Prepare/Solicit/Award Cost-Type Contract for Excavation
- December 1 - Lower Granite draw-down begins by dropping 1/2 foot per day, increasing up to 1 foot per day. This is half the rate of the FR/EIS 2002 design so as to reduce railroad and roadway damages from the sluffing of saturated slopes.
- January 23 - Controlled hydraulic breach of Lower Granite.
- January 23 - Little Goose draw-down begins.
- March 15 - Controlled hydraulic breach of Little Goose.
- Two of Four LSR reservoirs have been drained.
- Rinse and Repeat in 2019/2020 at Lower Monumental and Ice Harbor.
Breaching Timeline ends March 15, 2020
- opening up to 87 miles of Fall Chinook spawning area.
- and survival rates are expected to at least TRIPLE (see Fish Passage Center's 2017 CSS Report).
Breaching is reversible, extinction and ecosystem collapse is not.
The concept of sustainability has been increasingly brought into focus as we have become convinced that all systems on earth are interrelated and that many of today’s problems were the solutions of yesterday. Sustainability is, however, a very old concept. Most American Indian cultures understood the importance of sustainability and sustainable development, living in harmony with all things.
Many people are familiar with the Seventh Generation philosophy commonly credited to the Iroquois Confederacy but practiced by many Native nations. The Seventh Generation philosophy mandated that tribal decision makers consider the effects of their actions and decisions for descendents seven generations into the future. There was a clear understanding that everything we do has consequences for something and someone else, reminding us that we are all ultimately connected to creation.
